CogPsych2015

Probably...but that hasn't stopped me from doing it.

Can whoever posted for Stanford Affective Science PM me your POI, if you feel comfortable?

I applied mostly to Cognitive Psych programs, with Stanford (Affective Science) being the exception. My research interests are in judgment and decision making. In no particular order... -Rutgers (New Brunswick) -Washington State University -Stanford -Texas A&M -Penn -WashU

I work in a lab with two PIs and have for most of my undergraduate years. I absolutely love it. It's an additional set of eyes on everything I write, a different set of ideas, and another person supporting you along the way. It also came in handy when I needed letters of rec, as I already had two from the one lab. It helps that these two get along well and work together on basically everything they do.

I heard this from the director of clinical training at my university also. Apparently the deadlines for a lot of schools have been slowly creeping earlier and earlier over the last few years as a result.

I thought I'd like hearing about invitations being sent out early, but it's just adding stress. The fact that it's also finals week isn't helping either...

Oh, I know. The sitting with my computer open isn't because of applications, but rather a result of working a lot of hours a week at a job that requires it. Granted, I'm not sad about it, but also not that crazy . Well, maybe I am that crazy...but, not because of this.

It kills my phone battery. Most of the time I'm on a computer with my Outlook open, but the little bit of time with just my phone is spent pressing the refresh button constantly:)

No. Even though I know most don't come until January, I'm keeping my phone with me at all times. And refreshing my email even more than usual...and my usual level is excessive. Anxious? Who, me...? ​

Yeah, I applied to Penn with my standard (ish) 1.75 page SOP.

Doesn't matter. I work in undergraduate admissions, and there is a system in place to match application pieces up, regardless of what order they came in. You're fine

Really, how common is this? My undergrad institution (that I'm currently at) is an R1 with a relatively large program and I know for a fact that we do not do this. I'm just saying, it may not be very widespread...

I work in the undergraduate admissions office at my university, and can say that it often takes up to a week to process anything we get and then reflect that we have it online. But, it goes into our imaging system right away. So, it's technically "received" whenever we physically have it and put it in our imaging system (usually <1 day), it just takes awhile longer for the student to see that we have it. Our grad school uses the same programs. Hopefully that's what is going on with your documents

Done . Good luck!

My last one didn't get hers in until the day the app was due...even though I knew she would get it in, it was still incredibly stressful. From what I know, there's a little bit more leeway with a letter of rec than with other application materials, simply because it's mostly out of your control. If they were all in late, they might think that you didn't give your writers enough time. However, one late one should not reflect poorly on you, assuming it's not more than a few days late.

My last letter of rec was sent in (thank goodness, as my first deadline was today), so my apps are officially complete . I'm sure this should be a good feeling, but now all I'm doing is stressing that I did something absurd like spell my own name wrong. This is going to be an incredibly long next few months...

I had my letters submitted and got notifications for 3 out of 6 of them. TAMU did not send an email, but I can see that it was submitted in my ApplyTexas portal

Just submitted my last app...let the waiting games begin!

Welp, made my first (and hopefully only) application mistake. Used the Mrs. prefix for one of my recommenders on the request site without even thinking about the fact that Dr. was an option. I looked at for a while funnily, as I had never seen her name written that way...and then it dawned on me. *facepalm* Luckily the system requires me to press another button to submit, so nothing has happened yet, but they're also saying I can't edit what I've already entered. This is going to be fun...

dftb Katie, wanna trade SOPs?

Nine out of ten responded, with two not accepting. Both were very kind and suggested other potential mentors to look at, which was nice:)

Rose Tyler, I fell very similar! Last first day of undergrad...I'm excited for the next year, but also kind of scared. I'm around or above average on GRE for my programs, but my GPA is not as high as I would like. We'll see how it goes:) Good luck!

Just got an email back from one of my POIs: "From looking at your CV it looks like you would be a great fit for the lab. I’ve followed much of (Current PI 1) and (Current PI 2) work as we examine a lot of similar issues in decision-making. It’s also nice to see that you have done some aging work as that is one interest of mine." I didn't mention my current PIs in the actual email or my work on aging (not an area I want to really continue in), so there are definitely benefits to including it.

I think attaching the CV really depends. I had a lot of overlapping research interests/projects with my POIs, but didn't want to go over every single one of them in the letter. So, I went into a little detail on his/her topics I was most interested in working on and just mentioned that I had experience with the other topics. If they cared about my other experience, the CV was there to go into more detail. One of the tips that I got (and I think it really helped) was to not sound too dry. It's really tempting to just say This is me, this is what you do, this is what I want to do, are you accepting students? That was my first draft and I asked one of the grad students I TA'd for to look at it. Her advice was basically to put a little more passion into it. While it isn't the Personal Statement or SOP, it doesn't have to be dry and monotonous.

I was originally planning on waiting a bit longer, but am taking my GRE in August and didn't want to use any of my score reports on POIs that weren't accepting. So far, so good. Four responses, three are planning on accepting students:)